


Oh, what a world

by NamelesslyNightlock



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adorkable, Avenger Loki, Camping, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Friends to Lovers, Frostiron Bingo Round 1, Getting Together, Happy, Hiking, M/M, Nature, Romantic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Whining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 18:39:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20119819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NamelesslyNightlock/pseuds/NamelesslyNightlock
Summary: Tony had never liked the outdoors, and the outdoors had never liked him. But maybe, with the right person, even a trip into the forest can become something magical.





	Oh, what a world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snixerz99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snixerz99/gifts).

> **Snixerz99** told me that listening to the song [_Oh, What A World_ by Kacey Musgraves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hwRe7scRiY) while reading Chapter 15 of Don't Look Down made the chapter so much softer, and when I listened to it, it made me want to write something fluffy. So, here it is!  
  
This is also my second fill for the Frostiron Bingo—  
  
**Square N4**— _Setting: Forest._

Tony had never liked the outdoors.

It wasn’t that he had anything in particular against nature, it was more like… nature had something against _him_. There wasn’t any wifi for starters, and the lack of power outlets truly was atrocious. But even though Tony was able to quickly put together a phone that would be able to keep in service – and stay connected to the internet from _Mars_ – so that he would be able to survive the trip, it was still his absolute worst nightmare.

The flowers made him sneeze, the trees smelt weird, and the ground was all uneven. Every single rock and root seemed to be _aimed_ at his feet, purposefully placed in his path to make him trip over.

The literal _only_ good thing about it was that Steve had decreed the hike to be a compulsory activity for the whole team, which meant that Loki had come as well.

It was rare that Loki joined in on stuff– since he had been forced to come to Earth as part of his penance for the attack on New York, he spent most of his time on his floor in the Tower, reading and – Tony suspected, anyway – feeling sorry for himself.

Tony, though… he _loved_ spending time with Loki. The guy was hilarious, and was closer to being on Tony’s level of cleverness than any of the others, even including Bruce. It had taken a lot of time and work and purposefully provoked arguments (which they had both enjoyed), but slowly, Loki had begun spending more and more time in Tony’s workshop with him. And maybe it was because Loki was an alien, but he wasn’t like anyone else– he and Tony fit together better than Tony ever had with another person.

And while all the other Avengers powered forward, chatting about this or that and actually somehow enjoying their walk, Loki hung back to walk beside Tony, not seeming to care that it was taking him longer than any of the others.

(Which, come on, was _not_ Tony’s fault. If Steve had let him bring the suit, then Tony would have easily outstripped all of them.)

Talking to Loki always lifted Tony’s spirits, and even though it didn’t exactly help him _forget_ their unfortunate surroundings, it certainly helped him to keep putting one foot in front of the other when what he most wanted to do was to just sit down in the middle of the dirt track and wait for the others to come back the next day.

Thankfully, when they turned the next corner they came upon a small fallen log, which the rest of the Avengers seemed to have decided was a good place to have a rest. Steve and Natasha had discarded their packs upon the ground and were bent over a map, bickering about the best place to stop for the night– while Bruce, Thor, and Clint were sitting on the thicker end of the log, pulling snacks out of their bags.

Tony didn’t even bother to take off the heavy pack– he just put his back to the thinner end of the log and bent his knees, letting the weight of it pull him down so that the pack was on the log, hovering awkwardly over his head but no longer putting pressure on his shoulders, and his butt was on the ground.

Every part of him ached. His shoulders, his legs, his neck– even his goddamn stomach was feeling like he’d done a thousand crunches. What the hell?

“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” Tony huffed, closing his eyes and leaning back his head as best he could with the pack in the way.

“It is a teamwork activity,” Loki reminded him, throwing down his own bag and sitting on the log beside Tony’s pack. Tony sighed– he would have preferred if Loki sat _next_ to _him_, but he supposed he couldn’t blame him for not wanting to get his pants covered in muck. Tony was just simply past caring.

“Right, yeah,” Tony groaned.

Honestly, it was getting ridiculous. Steve’s obsession with teamwork activities _had_ been there right from the start, since he’d claimed that the reason why his old unit had worked so well together had been because they’d been through so much as a team. But since alien invasions had been pretty thin on the ground since the first one, Steve liked to get the Avengers doing stuff he called… _fun._

And look, Tony could _cope_ with the movie nights. He could deal with the board games, even if they did often end in tears. The team cooking activities were pushing it, but hey, he actually enjoyed it when they got together for a melee in the gym or organised a city-wide game of capture the flag.

But hiking in the forest was just… ugh.

He felt like he had barely sat down by the time Steve and Clint announced that they had come to a decision, and that they still had another three miles to go before they could stop for the night.

The others were up in a flash, and Steve and Thor didn’t even need help getting their huge packs back on, slinging them over their shoulders like they weighed nothing more than a loaf of bread. Clint and Natasha helped each other while Steve helped Bruce, and Loki put on his own before turning to look down at Tony.

Tony, who had yet to get back up off the floor, because the weight of his fucking pack was too much– and the angle of it on the log meant he couldn’t even pull his arms out of the straps and push it away.

“If you laugh at me,” Tony warned, “I am going to make JARVIS take tea off the shopping list.”

“You wouldn’t,” Loki replied, sounding far too bright for such a deadly threat. Though, Tony supposed Loki just knew him well enough since… Loki _was_ right. Tony _wouldn’t_, and not just because he knew that if he did, Loki would only take away all the coffee in retaliation. “But don’t worry. I’m not going to laugh at you.”

Still, Tony was feeling a _little_ wary as Loki leaned down and ran his hands over the surface of Tony’s pack. It didn’t look like he was doing anything worrying, but… Tony had learned that Loki’s magic didn’t always manifest itself in impressive light shows and explosions.

But then, suddenly… it felt like Tony wasn’t carrying anything at all.

His eyes widened as he clambered back up onto his feet, his hands on the straps at his shoulders to _confirm_ that the huge pack was still there, but… it just didn’t weigh anything.

“What did you do?” he asked incredulously.

“I merely shifted your pack into another dimension,” Loki said with the same kind of casualness one might use when talking about the weather. “So you can still see it, but the weight is negligible.”

Tony was sure his eyes were as round as saucers. “You have _got_ to explain that to me in more detail.”

Loki seemed surprised by Tony’s interest, and his smile softened as he gave a small nod.

Tony was so touched that Loki thought to do such a thing, because– well, Tony knew that the pack weighed nothing to Loki, that he could have taken it from Tony and carried it himself without it being any kind of bother.

On the other hand, it likely would have been easier for Loki to disappear Tony’s pack entirely into a pocket dimension as Tony had seen Loki do before, rather than leaving it still visible on Tony’s shoulders– but this way, none of the other Avengers had to know what Loki had done. It wasn’t that Tony was ashamed of being _human_, but… well. He definitely would have had to put up with a bit of teasing, and that Loki had thought to save him from that made something inside Tony’s chest flutter a little bit.

The rest of the hike was so much easier, to the point that Tony was actually having a good time. Of course, that had absolutely nothing to do with nature, or the walk, or the team ‘bonding’ they were meant to be doing– but it had everything to do with Loki. They talked extensively about what Loki had done to Tony’s pack, and when they exhausted that topic they moved immediately on to other theories of magic, and then how they related to the laws of physics that Tony knew just as well as Loki could wield seiðr.

And yes, Tony’s feet were burning, his legs were aching, there was sweat on his brow and drinking water did nothing to help the growing headache, but… those things didn’t matter when Loki smiled at him like _that_, when his laugh was brighter than the sounds of the birds, and when the lack of weight on Tony’s shoulders was enough to make Tony feel the beginnings of a spark of hope.

—|x|—

By the time Tony collapsed into his (very proficiently erected, thank-you-very-much) tent, he was about ready to pass out. _Everything_ hurt from his nose to his toes, and honestly if Loki hadn’t lightened his pack he was pretty sure he would have collapsed before they’d even finished cooking dinner. (Which, for some reason, they did on a _fire._ For goodness sake, if Steve wanted to kill them all there were _easier_ ways.)

But he’d only just managed to get into his sleeping bag – a struggle which only highlighted yet _another_ reason why camping in the outdoors was a death-trap waiting to happen – when he heard the crunch of footsteps outside the tent, and then a familiar soft whisper.

“Anthony? Are you still awake?”

Tony almost groaned, but he managed to hold it in as he rubbed his hands over his eyes. “Yeah,” he said. “What’s up, Lokes?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk with me?”

And, okay, _walking_ sounded like the absolute last thing Tony wanted to be doing right then, just behind the options of wrestling with a rhino and being eaten by an alligator. He was exhausted, his muscles were screaming at him, he’d had only a few scoops of burned, congealed pasta for dinner and his head was pounding like the Hulk was doing Fortnite dances on the inside of his skull.

But… it was _Loki_, so Tony pushed through the tiredness, shoved his sleeping bag away and pulled on his boots.

When Tony fell out of the tent door, Loki held out a hand to pull Tony up, and Tony took it gratefully– but to his surprise, Loki didn’t let it go when Tony was on his feet. He didn’t hold on tight, but the intention was clearly there, and when Tony glanced up to meet Loki’s gaze he looked almost… shy.

So Tony just smiled, and held on a little tighter– then Loki’s expression lit up with complete and utter delight, and he tugged on Tony’s hand to lead the way.

They didn’t go along the track that they had used earlier, but went straight in among the trees. Tony had to admit that he was a _little_ worried about snakes, but he trusted that Loki knew what he was doing. He’d probably been in forests in Asgard, right? Loki had told him about hunting trips with Thor before, and surely they couldn’t have been _that_ different?

And besides, if a rattlesnake did get him, then he was sure Loki would be able to rescue him with seiðr.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, at complete odds to the way that they had walked together before. But the silence wasn’t awkward, it was just… peaceful– at least until Tony’s pants got caught on a bush and he went stumbling right into Loki, and Loki had to steady Tony by gripping both of his arms.

“Sorry,” Tony said, his cheeks flushing. “I guess I’m just a bit tired.”

Loki immediately looked worried. “Should we head back?”

“No, that’s okay,” Tony replied. “I like spending time with you.”

The moment the words were out of his mouth, he almost wished that he hadn’t said them– because it made the pounding of his heart and the dryness of his mouth and the way that Loki made him feel a little tongue-tied really freaking obvious. But Loki’s expression was soft, and he merely squeezed both of Tony’s hands before letting go of one and continuing to lead the way.

The silence had been broken, though, and they easily fell back into the conversations that they had been carrying earlier on the hike.

Tony was halfway through an excited question about how Loki used his seiðr to manipulate light and create illusions when they stepped through the tree-line and arrived at a small clearing– and the question died in his throat.

And, you know.

Tony doesn’t really like the outdoors, but…

Even he had to admit, the scene was rather stunning.

The trees, of course, were the same as everywhere else, but the way that the branches arched up and over the open space meant that the moonlight filtered through in soft beams, reflecting on the running water in the small, clear creek that flowed through the middle of the clearing.

“I saw this on the map that Rogers was waving about,” Loki said quietly, shifting so that their arms brushed together rather than just holding hands. “I know that you don’t particularly love… _nature_, but… I thought it might be nice.”

It might have been hard to tear his gaze from the picturesque scenery if Tony had been turning to look at anything else, but as it was, he found it easy to meet Loki’s gaze with a smile.

“It is,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

Loki’s expression was soft, and he lifted the hand that was not still holding Tony’s to brush his fingers along Tony’s cheek. Tony leaned into the touch with a sigh, and curled his own hand in Loki’s shirt– and from there, it just felt _natural_ to press up on his toes and bring their lips together for a sweet kiss.

The kiss only lasted a moment, barely the most gentle brush of lips– but it was still perfect.

With the sound of the creek bubbling away, and the moonlight casting the whole scene in a pale light, it almost looked like the place was enchanted, like there was some kind of magic all around them– and when their kiss broke, their foreheads leaned together as they both lingered in the moment. It was almost too good to be true, hard to believe… and Tony knew that he could have stayed in that clearing, in Loki’s arms forever.

They kissed again, neither of them seeing any reason to deny themselves– and then they were both smiling brightly, almost laughing as they finally pulled apart and stepped further into the clearing.

Their conversation flowed back easily, as if nothing had changed– and yet Tony was leaning into Loki’s side, they touched each other more than they ever had before, and their lips pressed together in frequent kisses just because they could, because they _wanted_ to.

Tony felt like he was flying, and no matter how tired he was – and even though the flowers still made him a feel a little like he was about to sneeze – he knew that he didn’t ever want to leave. But as he and Loki sat on the soft grass and leaned against a tree, their arms around each other and Tony resting his head on Loki’s shoulder, almost dozing off– he knew that they couldn’t stay all night. They would have to leave the clearing to sleep, and then the forest to go home.

But… what was happening between them was _real,_ and Tony knew that no matter where they went, the magic in the air would not fade.


End file.
